December Photo Project- Week 3

For the last three years I have loved participating in my friend Rebecca’s December Photo Project. She hosts it from her blog and encourages people to take a picture daily from the beginning of December through Christmas Eve. It’s been a fun way to be a little intentional during the holiday season to stop and reflect. This year I have chosen to document the life of a foster mom through an image a day. For confidentiality reasons, there won’t be identifiable photos of our foster child, but I struggle with feeling like confidentiality means our kids become invisible. It’s easier to ignore what you can’t see. So I’m documenting the impact a foster baby creates in a home, like the waves that happen when you throw a pebble in the water. And what lovely waves they are. (For the record—I am not a photographer, don’t necessarily enjoy taking pictures, and have done zero editing to any of these images. I like to document, but I am not artistic.) Enjoy!

25 Images from a Foster Mom

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Day 15

Leading music at church is a family affair. Brian plays guitar and sings, I get to sing with him, and each one of our kids has had a season of being “worn” on my chest. Baby’s first time was tonight and she blessedly slept through the whole experience.

 

Day 17
This is the door to the room where I got to speak to a group of future foster parents who are about to be licensed. My husband keeps telling me we can’t actually take every child who needs a family, so it has become my passion over the last couple years to see more quality people get involved in foster care. I love getting to address these groups and help prepare them for what’s ahead.

 

Day 18
I went to visit my friend Leigh and drop off some donated clothes to the Foster Care Closet tonight. Leigh let me come check out the Intake Care Center that’s now part of the Foster Care Closet. It’s a great space where kids can come during the transitional time while caseworkers are looking for a foster or relative placement for them. We’re thankful for the work of the Intake Care Center and have been very blessed by receiving clothes for each of our foster placements through the Closet.

 

Day 19
One of the unsung heroes of foster care- the baby of the family, who isn’t the baby anymore. This guy has handled the transition from youngest to big brother like a champ. It melts my heart when I’d see him waiting at the window like this for Baby to get back from visits, calling her name and yelling, “Where ah you?” until he saw the van bringing her back. He would laugh and squeal and had to be the first one to greet her when she got home.

 

 

Day 20
Christmas presents for Baby arrived from Nana and Papa Claus at the South Pole (i.e. South Carolina). We are blessed with a supportive extended family that has embraced our foster kids. It’s hard when you realize the risk you chose to take on is shared by your family that longs to see this child safe and doesn’t want to see you get your heart broken. We’ve found it hasn’t been hard for our family and friends to love and serve our foster kids, but it is harder to help everybody get on the same page about the importance of reunification even when it causes us pain. It’s especially hard to explain when you’re struggling with it yourself.

 

 

Day 21
“Mom, I made this special ornament so next year if Baby isn’t with us, we can still remember her.” -Josh, age 7
I love what a positive impact this experience has had on our kids. (And as you can probably guess by Josh’s creative spelling of “Family”, Baby’s actual name is not on this ornament, which works well for confidentiality purposes.)